“I’m sorry, Donny,” said Thelen. “I remember you telling me about your collection. But we deal with more liquid assets. I have an idea.”

Thelen leaned forward.

“You have this real estate you own out in Plano, right?” he said.

“Oh, man,” said Donny. “You can’t do this to me.”

“Let me remind you who is fucking who in this particular situation, Donny. That’s you, the guy who hasn’t made his payments, mistreating my boss and my company, who were generous enough to set you up in a tough situation even though they knew you were a high credit risk, relying on your good word. Which has now run out.”

Donny remembered a takedown Joyce once riffed on the debtor economy and the whole idea of the time value of money. Then he remembered what she said when he got her free with the loan that was now past due.

“Thelen, that’s my grandma’s house,” said Donny. “She’s retired. With nowhere else to go.”

“We understand that, Donny. But she won’t need to go anywhere, right? Because you are going to make this all happen.”

“What are you proposing, exactly?”

“You are going to give us the property in escrow. You deliver by the end of next week, we’re all set, all is forgiven. She won’t even need to know. You screw up, it’s ours, we sell it to cover what you owe us, and Grandma can come stay with you in that sweet apartment I heard you have in Houston.”

“That house is worth a lot more than what I owe.”

“Yeah, well, there’s a premium for this kind of risk. Come on, Donny. Buzz here is also one of our paralegals, and he has the papers for you to sign.”

Donny turned to look at the bodyguard, who had the tablet and stylus out. He could tell it wasn’t an option, even before he let Donny see the gun.

10

Looking back on it, Donny wished he had known at the time he bought Joyce’s freedom that in just a few months the country would break out in revolution, and all the political prisoners would be freed. He also wondered if it would have made any difference in the decisions he made.

It wasn’t the first time he had sprung Joyce from jail. It was the third, not counting the time they both got picked up together for driving while high, back before the coup. But it was definitely the most expensive.